1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a nail print apparatus and a print control method thereof for fitting a first design and a second design that is the background of the first design to a nail.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, there are known nail print apparatuses to print (perform nail printing) desired design images on fingernails of people.
By using such apparatuses, nail printing can be enjoyed easily without visiting nail salons and such like.
When printing a design image on a nail by a nail print apparatus, the design image needs to be fitted to a nail of a user in size and shape.
With respect to this, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid Open Publication No. 2004-154944 suggests a technique in which approximate size of the nail is taken into the apparatus, a nail art pattern (design image) is synthesized with an approximate outline of the nail, and thereby the design image is fitted to the nail of the user in size and shape.
However, there are nails of various shapes such as a nail long in extending direction (vertical direction) and a nail long in width direction (horizontal direction). Moreover, in most cases, the nail's length in width direction (horizontal direction) which is orthogonal to the extending direction (vertical direction) varies depending on a position in the extending direction (vertical direction) of the nail. Thus, when the design image is merely synthesized with the approximate outline of the nail, it is difficult to completely fit the design image into the user's nail and there can be an unprinted area and running off the edge.
Thus, in order to prevent the unprinted area and running off the edge of the design image, Japanese Patent Application Laid Open Publication No. 2004-154944 discloses adjusting the size, aspect ratio and position of a pattern to be printed so as to fit a nail by a person to be printed (user).
However, fine adjustment of the size, aspect ratio, position and such like of the design to be printed by a user himself/herself so as to fit the nail requires considerable time and trouble. Thus, nail printing cannot be enjoyed casually if nail printing suitable for the user's nail cannot be performed without such preparation.
Furthermore, for example, in a case where the design image includes a first design such as a one-point picture pattern and a second design which is an overall pattern where a small design is scattered throughout the design image and which is the background of the first design, if the second design is reduced and adjusted to the size and shape of the nail, the picture loses arrangement balance or gets distorted. Also, if the image data is reduced and adjusted to fit to the shorter length among the vertical and horizontal lengths of the nail so as to include the whole picture in the nail, the background is also reduced together and becomes too short in the direction of the longer length among the vertical and horizontal lengths of the nail, generating an area where the background image is not printed.
That is, for example, when a design image formed of a horizontally long first design (for example, a picture of a pencil lying sideways) and a horizontally long second design is to be adjusted (fitted) into a vertically long nail, if the design image is fitted so as to cover the whole vertical length with the second design, the first design becomes so large as to run off the edge of the nail or becomes a distorted first design with an altered aspect ratio which is enlarged in the vertical direction (a picture of a distorted pencil which is thick in vertical direction). If the design image is fitted so that the first design fits to the length in width direction of the nail, the first design does not run off the edge of the nail; however, the second design becomes smaller than the nail, generating an area (unprinted area) in a nail in which the design image is not printed.
In order to prevent such inconvenience, it is necessary to perform very troublesome processing such as preparing a large design image which can fit to any kind of nail and fitting the design image to each nail manually by a user. Thus, the nail printing cannot be performed easily and rapidly.
The present invention was made in consideration of above problems and an object of the present invention is to provide a nail print apparatus and a print control method thereof for fitting each of a first design and a second design that is the background of the first design to a nail when printing a design image on a nail.